Choosing the right commercial roof repairs

We often get asked if there is a way to objectively identify what repairs a client should do and shouldn't do on their roof.

We recommend basing it upon the amount of service life that remains in the commercial roof.

For example, do you have a roof that still has10-plus years, five-plus years? Are you down to your final year of service life on that roof? How much life remains?

Break your repairs into two different categories: Emergency Repairs and Remedial Repairs

Emergency repairs are repairs of anything that allows water into the roof system. For example, flashing that is peeled open, seams that are popped open or punctures, rips, and tears in the membrane.

Remedial repairs are taking care of items like tenting, blistering, or debris on the roof. These repairs should be taken care of, in order to prolong the life of the roof (potentially), and not an emergency.

Now, the objective way to deciding what you should do based upon the amount of service life that remains is always to take care of emergency repairs, unless you're replacing that roof in the next few months.

Don’t ever run the risk of allowing your roof to become saturated before a roof replacement has to take place. It will end up costing you an excessive amount of money. Take care of those items that are allowing water to enter that roof system and always take care of those unless again, you're replacing that roof in the next few months.

Now, when it comes to remedial repairs, there is a point of diminishing returns that you can get past, which basically means that you've already had so much service life used in that roof, that you're no longer going to be able to prolong the life of that roof.

If you envision a car that you buy brand new and you never changed the oil on it, and you drive that thing for 70-80,000 miles, well, it doesn't matter if all of a sudden you start then changing the oil on that car, routinely, you've passed the point of diminishing returns on changing your oil every 3000 miles, and prolonging the life of that vehicle.

It is the same thing with your roof. When you're past the point that your roof is now deteriorating, and you are coming within a few years out on replacing that roof, be very selective in the remedial repairs you do because you might just be throwing good money after bad.

We would be happy to help you identify and make good, objective decisions about roof repairs as roof management experts. Contact us!